Systems exist to facilitate remote control of and access to a computer by an operator at a remote station. Such systems typically use a device or mechanism that enables an operator at a remote station to control aspects of a so-called target (or local) computer. More particularly, such systems typically allow a remote station to provide mouse and keyboard input to the target computer and further allow the remote station to view the video display output, and hear the audio output of the target computer. These types of systems are typically called keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) systems.
Traditional KVM systems rely on wired technology to connect remote and target computers. It is, however, sometimes desirable to allow wireless connection between remote stations and target computers (included as part of a target system). For example, in addition to minimizing the number of actual wires needed in a KVM system, a wireless KVM system allows for target systems and remote stations to be added to the system without the addition of switches or wires.
In order for a remote computer to control the operation of a target computer, it is desirable that the video display of the remote computer keep up, in essentially real-time, with the display of the target computer. It is further desirable for a remote computer or system to be able to switch rapidly between different target systems. However, each target system is potentially different from each other such system. In particular, different target systems may have different types of video output. Also, large amounts of data are required to keep the remote computer's video display current. Accordingly, it is desirable to efficiently compress the video data being sent from the target computer to the remote computer in a manner that both presents an acceptable image to the target display and, at the same time, does not create significant delay between the creation and transmission of the video data.